On 4 July 1776 only two signatures were affixed to the unanimously adopted Declaration of Independence — those of John Hancock, president of the Congress, and Charles Thomson, secretary, in order to authenticate the document that had been voted on and approved. Yet by a curious twist of fate (read rather, surely, of a political enemy's knife), when the calligraphic copy that is so well known to every school child was ready shortly after 19 July, authenticator Thomson was not invited to sign it!

When he had retired from public life in 1789, Thomson was to turn his interest in the Bible and Greek to the 20-year task of producing this monumentally important work.

Its printer was the daughter of Robert Aitken, who had printed the first Bible in English in America. A major edition of the English Bible, this is essential for any Bible collection, not just for collections of American Bibles — though as an American Bible and simple Americanum it has a revered place.

As Darlow and Moule comment, “by printing the Rheims Testament in full, side by side with the Bishops' version, [Fulke] secured for the former a publicity which it would not otherwise have obtained, and was indirectly responsible for the marked influence which Rheims exerted on the Bible of 1611.” Alan Thomas elaborates by observing that “many a dignified or felicitous phrase was silently lifted by the editors of King James's Version, and thus passed into the language” (Great Books and Book Collectors, p. 108).

Provenance:  Signature of a contemporary owner “A. Thorpe, York,” undated, on A2.

•  STC 2900; Darlow & Moule 265; Herbert 265; ESTC S115769.   Modern black calf, covers framed with single gilt rule and paneled in gilt rolls with corner fleurons. Title-page mounted, with outer edge and small hole in lower margin reinforced; dust-soiled. A2 with early inked ownership signature (see above) and notation; reinforced at hinge (inside). Other markings: two pages with marginal notations and four pages with corrections, both inked by an early hand. Bug-spotting on several preliminary leaves. Light waterstaining on some early and later leaves, with occasional odd stains and spots elsewhere, not impairing sense of text. Dust-soiling on index pages. Two preliminary leaves missing small pieces of paper in blank margins; small hole at top outer corner of Kkkk4; and small chip at top edge of Hhhh2. Fold-mark at top outer corner of Vvv2. In fact, a very nice copy of an important book.  (24477)

•  Herbert 298; Darlow & Moule 230; STC (rev. ed.) 2206. Concordances: ESTC S122240; STC (rev. ed.) 13232. Psalmes: ESTC S124337; STC (rev. ed.) 2533.5.   Period-inspired later (late 19th-/early 20th-century) calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled decorations; joints and corners refurbished, spine leather and label with minor cracking. All edges stained red. Title-page mounted, with old repaired tear; a few outer corners replaced, with loss of a few words from notes (only); one leaf with tear from lower margin, extending into text without loss; one leaf with burn hole towards upper outer corner, with loss of a few letters from several lines. Bible (Deuteronomy) with ff. 79 and 80 torn out, f. 436 lacking after Apocrypha and before “The Summe of the whole Scripture”; Concordances lacking f. C8; Psalmes lacking final 34 pp. Paper good, though darkened and spotted; a number of scattered early inked marks and marginalia.  (26610)

•  Disbound. Inner edge with small nicks; very unobtrusive creasing to lower corners (from the original press run?); otherwise in beautiful condition.  (25835)

•  ESTC S121317; Herbert 323; STC (2nd ed.) 2227; Rumball-Petre 128. Psalmes: ESTC S108634; STC (2nd ed.) 2544.5.   Contemporary treed calf, rebacked, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations between gilt-dotted raised bands; edges and corners rubbed. Inscriptions as above; back free endpaper with early inked musical annotations; a few pages (mostly blank, but also including the O.T. title-page) with early inked annotations and doodles. Pages age-toned and trimmed closely, in some cases touching shouldernotes and headers; occasional light staining. Psalms lacking final 12 pp., with edges of three leaves tattered (in one case with loss of several words); Psalms otherwise complete and Bible entirely so. An appealing copy with interesting provenance.  (25100)

•  Darlow & Moule 270; ESTC S1792; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 130; STC (2nd ed.) 2244.   Full later mottled calf, covers framed in double blind fillets and fleuron roll; spine with raised bands, blind-tooled compartment decorations, and gilt-stamped title and date; incomplete, with title-page, Apocrypha, and N.T. lacking. Binding rubbed/bumped at stress points, one compartment scuffed. Front free endpaper, first text page, and several others institutionally pressure-stamped; first page with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin and early inked annotation regarding date of printing. Front free endpaper with affixed slips documenting gift donation in 1955, and with inked annotation regarding date; back pastedown showing traces of now-absent pocket. Tattering to first leaves not reaching text, and first one with recent repairs, second one with area of loss to upper outer portion affecting a border and ten lines of text, third one with central tear (touching woodcut map) repaired some time ago with tape, four leaves each with short tear from lower margin without loss, one leaf with lower outer corner torn away with partial loss of shouldernotes and image caption, final index leaf with hole affecting six lines. Expectable sorts of age-toning, dust-soiling, and light spotting/staining, only; lower outer corners of first quarter waterstained (often faintly). In sum a survivor; “breeches” in Genesis underlined in ink!  (26072)

The volume opens with two fly-leaves bearing genealogical records in several different early inked hands, with dates ranging from 1743 through 1847. A copy of Speed's Genealogies precedes the Old Testament, while the “Description of Canaan” with map that should close the Genealogies has been bound in after the O.T. title-page.

•  ESTC S122379; Darlow & Moule 359; STC (2nd ed.) 2298.5. Speed: ESTC S126191; STC (2nd ed.) 23039a.4. Psalms: ESTC S122383; STC (2nd ed.) 2633.   Recent mottled calf, covers fillet-framed and panelled in blind with decorative inner blind roll and blind-tooled corner fleurons; spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands. Front cover with two slender scrapes; title-page with date altered in ink to 1633, as above. Front fly-leaves with margins repaired; “Description of Canaan” with inner margin reinforced. Bible, seven preliminary leaves lacking (calendar, dedication, preface, and list of books all present); Psalms, four final index leaves (only) lacking; foliation slightly erratic. Varying degrees of age-toning, occasional light waterstaining, some margins with faint smudging; in fact and in suma nice volume to hold and work with.  (26102)

Provenance: Fore-edge painted with “Elizabeth Smith, 1680"; front fly-leaf with inscription recording the birth of William Rice in 1681 and with inscription of Charles Knowlton, dated 1738; fly-leaf verso with early inked genealogy describing the Smith-Rice-Knowlton descent.

Binding: Elaborate Restoration binding: black morocco framed in gilt semi-circle and strawberry rolls surrounding a broken panel design of red-inlaid scalloped corners decorated with floral-dotted volutes, containing a bouquet of tulips and other flowers with red and citron morocco inlays; the upper- and lowermost tulips each with a smaller gilt-stamped flower and leaf tool inside, spaces filled with small flowers and dots. Spine gilt extra using cover rolls and additional floral decorations, with two decorated compartments of red morocco; board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. The tools used do not appear to be an exact match to any binder represented in Bennett, Nixon, or Maggs: Bookbinding in the British Isles, although the tulip with superimposed small flower is reminiscent of the binder Nixon identifies as the Small Carnation Binder. All edges gilt. Fore-edge painted with name as above, surrounded by hand-painted floral decorations.

•  BCP: Wing (rev. ed.) B3659B. Not in ESTC; not in Griffiths (see 1680/5 for a very close example). Bible: ESTC R215858; Wing (rev. ed.) B2308A; Herbert 758. Psalms: Not in ESTC, not in Wing.   Binding as above, front joint cracked (sewing holding) with corners/edges rubbed; spine leather with small cracks and head chipped, small area darkened. BCP lacking A1, either a blank or a licence and much more likely an initial blank; title-page repaired at one corner. Elsewhere, one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending across one column without loss; page edges with occasional small smudges from fore-edge decorations; some faint spotting and foxing. Now housed in a café au lait morocco slipcase mistakenly giving 1630 as year of publication, based on misleading print impression on title-page. A good and interesting book apart from its extraordinary binding, charming fore-edge treatment, and multi-generational provenance.  (25925)

The engraved title-page is very fine, with Moses and Aaron flanking the title, the British royal arms above, and a scene of London below. The rest of the plates are all maps, as would not be the case in an Anglican Bible: These are all double-page, full of detail, and very attractive. The first, a map of the world, is labelled in Latin and Italian, and the rest in Dutch.

•  Herbert 743; Wing (rev.) B2310. Contemporary diced calf, rebacked; one joint again open and the other open, but cords holding. Covers ruled with single gilt fillets, edges with single gilt rolls. Spine compartments ornately gilt. Covers stained and with abrasions and some loss of leather, especially over corners; spine dry and rubbed, with loss of leather and gilt. All edges speckled red. Scattered spots of light soiling and staining, especially in the margins. Entirely untattered.

This edition is printed in two unruled columns with shouldernotes, sidenotes (including dates), and italic headers. Acts 6:3 wrongly reads “ye may” for “we may.” Tables of kindred and affinity, weights and measures, money, and time are found on the last two pages. The New Testament sectional title has a woodcut vignette showing the arms of the University.

Binding: 19th-century black calf, elaborately tooled in blind in imaginative evocation of an “over the top” 17th-century binding, being horizontally, vertically, and diagonally ruled, foliate and floral devices within. Spine compartments tooled within, with gilt title in second one and gilt “Barker 1637” gilt at base. Red marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance: 20th-century bookplate of C. ( or J.?) F. Weidmann, D.D. on front pastedown.

•  Herbert 757; Darlow & Moule 595; Wing (rev.) 2315; Loftie, A Century of Bibles, 354; ESTC R213033. (The title-page is from ESTC S90540 or S90541.) Binding as above, a little rubbed, and refurbished. Occasional light browning, soiling, and shallow bumping or chipping (not touching text). Lacking engraved title (replaced with title and preliminary leaf from another edition). A bibliophile’s delight, and warning.

Provenance: Front pastedown with red leather bookplate gilt-stamped “Sarah Jeaffreson.” Also with tipped-in bookplate of the Zion Research Library’s A. Marguerite Smith Collection and with laid-in bookplate of the Endowment for Biblical Research, Boston.

Binding: Red goat, covers framed in floral gilt rolls and spine compartments with gilt-stamped geometric and floral decorations; very delicate and pretty. Board edges gilt, gilt inner dentelles, all edges gilt.

•  ESTC T91635; Darlow & Moule 1238. Binding moderately rubbed and abraded with spine slightly darkened; corners bumped and lower one of front cover discolored at leather-edge; gilt on edges faded almost away. Inside some age-toning, with a handful of small, light spots; one leaf torn along inner margin. Back fly-leaf with pencilled notation; scattered stray pencil marks to other leaves. A pleasing little Oxford Bible.

•  Prayer Book, Psalter: not in ESTC. Bible: not in Darlow & Moule or ESTC; Herbert 1286. Contemporary calf, covers panelled in blind with remnants of clasps. Front joint open with cords strongly holding; covers abraded with incisions and leather loss to edges; spine leather dry and cracking; front fly-leaf detached. Lacking title-page and two preliminary leaves of Prayer Book; another early leaf detached with a closed tear across, no loss of text; four or half a dozen leaves with a crescent of waterstaining along upper margin and some lines into text. Bible: scattered foxing and brown spotting, with a few closed tears and occasional chipping in the margins, resulting in loss of words from a few shouldernotes. The copy described by Herbert had engravings and maps not present here; this copy is complete textually.

Provenance: The front fly-leaf bears an inked inscription reading “From this Book our 4 Dear Children were Babtized [sic] by the Rev. S. Good, Rector of St. Anns Blk. Friars, And afterwards Christened by their Dear Uncle the Rev. Charles Brown, Rector of Whitestone, near Exeter, Devon.” The children's baptismal dates range from 1806 through 1814.

•  ESTC T93069; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1791/7. Binding as above, leather slightly worn over joints and extremities. Front fly-leaf with collector's small bookplate, reverse with inscription as above, title-page with owner's name and date (1806) inked in upper margin. Pages clean.

This edition ends with leaf 6M4 and does not match Darlow and Moule 957 (Edinburgh: M. & C. Kerr, 1793), described as a folio with text ending on 9R2, although that entry's statement that “The insertion of the Apocrypha interrupts the signatures” would seem to explain the absence of the non-integral Apocrypha; the accompanying Scotch Metrical Psalms of 1795 are also present in Darlow and Moule's listing. Herbert finds additional Kerr printings of 1793, but none that match the format and collation of this copy.

Scarce: ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only two U.S. holdings.

Provenance: The beautifully written ownership note, “Rebecca Jane Emack,” at top of first text leaf.

•  ESTC T91818; this ed. not in Darlow & Moule or Herbert.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped thistle decorations, leather edges tooled in blind. Upper portion of title-page neatly excised and probably something off the bottom also; early inked ownership inscription as above. Light staining and foxing; several instances of laid-in dried plant matter.  (25336)

Each volume closes with extensive Notes; the last leaf of vol. I offers a list of other works by this author for sale from the same publisher; and the last page of the second volume has an affixed errata slip. The notes are quite direct and personal, with Wakefield remarking, e.g., on what effect or variety of accuracy he is trying to achieve; what the knot of difficulty at a particular point actually is, for the translator; and whose “excellent” reading he is following (and how the chosen version from the Coptic differs from the Syriac or AEthiopic). He expresses surprise that an “obvious construction” has “escaped the critics” so “remarkabl[y]” long as it has, and in another case confesses that he is “quite at a loss” as to how one clause is supposed to connect with another — definitely, he's a scholar who yetlives in his pages.

Provenance:  Armorial bookplates of Justinian Minoch laid in.

•  ESTC T93093; Darlow & Moule 933 (see note); Herbert 1362. On Wakefield, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter black morocco and stone pattern marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind; spines with gilt-stamped title, volume number, place/date, and compartment decorations. Bookplates laid in as above. Half-titles and title-pages with handsome old institutional pressure-stamp; each first text page with inked numeral. Intermittent light foxing, pages otherwise clean. An engaging pair of books in all respects.  (25784)

George Campbell (1719–96) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, theologian, and principal of Marischal College. He wrote a number of theological works, including a defense of miracles in response to David Hume, and was noted for originality of argument as well as charity towards his opponents. This translation of the Gospels was first published in England in 1789; the work consists of a preface and preliminary dissertations, the actual translation, and the notes, with the whole being very scholarly, resorting frequently to the Greek in the dissertations and notes.

Provenance: Title-page and contents leaf with early inked inscriptions reading “Jas. Booth.”

•  ESTC W4383; Evans 30086; Hills, English Bible in America, 56. On Campbell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary treed sheep, rubbed and abraded with leather lost at corners/spine and cracking over joints and spine. Title-page and contents inscribed as described above; endpapers waterstained, and pages with light spots of foxing. Paper in many sections faintly blue.

In an attempt to promote the idea of changing the country's name from the United States of America to the United States of Columbia, Thomas used the latter nomenclature on all issues of his proudly local, non-imported production.

ESTC and OCLC locate only eight institutional holdings, all in the U.S.

•  ESTC W4503; Evans 36955; Hills 72; O'Callaghan 55 (for 1799 ed.).   Period-style calf, framed and panelled in blind rolls, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information and gilt-ruled raised bands, turn-ins blind-tooled. Two pages of Jeremiah (not consecutive) lacking. Pages age-toned with moderate staining; first and last few leaves with edge nicks, chips, and short tears; a few leaves creased; one leaf with lower margin chipped, resulting in loss of about four words. Some corners bumped or dog-eared.  (26121)

Provenance: Front free endpaperswith inscription reading “Mary Miller — Greenwich No. 2 10mo [?] 1st 1837.”

•  Hills 114; Shaw & Shoemaker 5850. Contemporary sheep, abraded, with leather cracking over spines and joints cracked or cracking; spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels. Vol. III lacking first contents leaf; vol. IV lacking front free endpaper and preliminary blank. Occasional spots of foxing and varying degrees of age-toning; some leaves with edge chips.

Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet, spine with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC B2162; Lowndes, Bibliographer’s Manual, 2002 (for 1798 Tattersall ed.); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, 1269 (likewise). Binding as above, spine and outer edge of front cover darkened, joints and edges with moderate shelf wear. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate and donor bookplate; front free endpaper reverse with inked ownership inscription and pencilled inscription dated 1814; title-page with small inked initials in upper outer corner. Light foxing. In fact quite nice.

The text generally follows the Challoner–Rheims revision, although the notes are collected from various sources. The volume is illustrated with two frontispieces and17 plates engraved by J. Bottomley, Symns and Mitchell, and others after paintings by Westall, Raphael, Reynolds, et al. Issued in parts in a small print run, this Bible is now uncommon.

•  Darlow & Moule 1034. Contemporary treed calf, rebacked some time ago in plain calf with gilt-ruled bands and gilt-stamped title-label; sides rubbed and scraped, with spine scuffed, leather worn over extremities, front joint cracked from weight of oversized volume. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape. Lacking title-page. Plate from Genesis I:4 removed, and laid back in with margins cut away. First few leaves with edges ragged. Pages with offsetting around plates; occasional light spots of staining, mostly confined to outer margins.

•  Hills 259; Shaw & Shoemaker 30867. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding rubbed, front joint cracked, back joint starting from top, spine extremities chipped. Front pastedown with private collector’s small bookplate, title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper margin. Pages age-toned.

Provenance:  Ownership note of “Ephraim Pierce” on front free endpaper, with the “Family Records” pages offering four pages (eight columns) on the Pierce family and its connections.

•  Books Contained in the Library of the American Bible Society 15; Hills 296; O'Callaghan 128–29; Shaw & Shoemaker 36952; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 195–96.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-stamped Greek key bands, and gilt-stamped decorations consisting of a sickle, wheat, and an hourglass overlaid by an open book; binding rubbed overall, front cover with lower outer portion darkened, spine leather with minor cracking, spine with old inked shelving number in bottom compartment. Front pastedown with traces of now-absent bookplate, front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription, title-page and two others institutionally pressure-stamped, preliminary advertisement with inked annotation along inner margin and rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Back fly-leaf with affixed contemporary religious clippings. Two plates torn, each with old hand-sewn repair in dark thread. Folding map torn along folds, one tear with small area of loss, edges tattered. Pages and plates predictably foxed, some browned; a few corners dog-eared.  (26016)

Provenance

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 47213; Hills 375. Contemporary sheep double-panelled in blind, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title label; binding rubbed and unevenly faded, leather cracking over spine. Foxing ranging from mild to severe; last few leaves waterstained; some dog-earing. One worm track to upper outer margin of a few leaves. New Testament lacking title. Well used but not abused; an evocative copy.

The family record leaves here were partially filled in with occasions in the lives of James M. Welling (b. 1807, d. 1882), his wife Susan Vail Welling (b. 1805, d. 1886), and their children; the final entry notes the death of Mark Hermon [sic] Wheeler in 1908.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small bookplate of prominent collector Michael Zinman.

•  Hills 465 (describing 684 pp. andonly three plates); Shoemaker 11809 (for an edition of this year, but with only 684 pp.); O’Callaghan gives 1818 Holbrook stereotype edition only. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; binding rubbed and abraded, with leather cracking over spine and cracked over joints. Pages browned, with waterstaining to inner margins. One plate with hole to corner of image; oversized, folding map with small hole near edge.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Vol. I opens with a copper-engraved dedication to the king; vol. III closes with a list of subscribers.

Complete sets in good condition are not commonly found on the market.

•  Herbert 369; NSTC 2B26321.   Original boards (signed binding: each front pastedown with small ticket of G. Peck, bookbinder), newly rebacked in the style of the era with tan paper spines in mottled tones bearing new printed paper labels; corners and edges rubbed, sides showing moderate wear. Each front pastedown with early inked numeral. Page edges untrimmed; pages lightly age-toned, with intermittent spotting. A very good set.  (25087)

Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt rolls, spine gilt extra, front cover gilt-stamped “John Bradley.” All edges marbled.

•  Shoemaker 31685. Binding as above, sides darkened, corners and spine rubbed, joints cracked with sewing holding but quite fragile. Fly-leaves with early pencilled ownership inscriptions and annotations. Light to moderate foxing. Separate title-page for second section (only) lacking.